Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1887-08-10
PROGRESS IN METALLAURGY.
The Benefits to the Miner of Improvements in Smeiting
 Operations.

That this IS an age of progress m mn
 ing and me,allurgical work IS general!
 understood; but the rspidiiy of the pro
 gress and the amount that has beer
 made are fact not generally understood
 Everyone can remember how only hal
 a dozen years ago there was much tsik
 among the mining men of the work
 done by the European smeltlng estab
 lishments, and they hardly dared to hope that in this country we should be able to compete with them for genera ton to come. Now the change is notic- able and remarkable. The best and most perfect smelting work that IS done anywhere in the world Is done in Colo rado, and when the cost of fuel and labor are considered the highest price paid for ore in the world is paid in Colorado.
 The improvement are due to causes only generally understood by the public There have 10, been any marvellous discoveries made in the science of metal lurgy and no great secret Of nature have been revealed. The improvements are due to mechanical appliances such as intelligence and experience suggest more than to any other cause. Of course, some improvement are due to the skill and knowledge that come from experience; such will always come to men who seek improvement
 Only half dozen years ago the Leadville smelters each year sent great fortunes up their smok e-stacks- '- Now these losses are prevented. Slag piles that would have been considered fairly clean at that time, would now be con sidered evidence of blundering work. Furnaces that then would have been consiGeraed economical would now be considered was,eful Ore that was then worthless to the miDer now pays him handsome profit, because the smelters can and do trea, them more cheaplY than they could then There is rot smelser in Colorado to-day which could pay expenses if 1t treated ore at the cost of treating Il half dozen years ago.
 The benefits of the improvement have gone to the miners ID the way of in creased prices paid for ore. The smelters have never combined to regulate the price of ore or keep up the price of smel,ing, which is equivalen, tothe same thing, though propositions from one or two are said 10 have been made to unite in such action. That kind of an organ i1ation would have bsen possible. Simi- lar organizations are formed in every other line of business. Railroads form pools to regulate freights, millers form organizations to regulate prices of flour and iron and steel and whiskey. and other manufacturers form pools to regulate prices and production and increase their own profits by such means. The pro ducers and consumers have always paid for these organizations. But the miners have never been oppressed by such pools. The closest competition has ex- isted in the ore market, compelling every smelling man to seek all possible ways for cheapening his methods of treatment and reducing his losses, so that be could pay large prices ID compe- tition with others. The benefits of these improvements have been received by the miners directly, and indirectly by all who are in any manner dependent upon the prosperity of the mines, and this "all' includes every one doing any kind of business in the state-Denver Repub- llcan.